Ica sits in the middle of Peru's wine country, and this is where Pisco — the grape brandy behind the Pisco Sour — is produced. Several bodegas can be visited, and a tour of the wineries like Bodega Tacama, Vista Alegre, or El Catador makes a pleasant half-day excursion.
The Museo Regional has mummies, ceramics, and elongated skulls from the Paracas, Nazca, and Inca cultures, though as usual the best pieces have been shipped off to Lima. The strange Cabrera Museum houses thousands of carved Ica Stones, and the Santuario del Señor de Luren is the city's pilgrimage church.
The real draw is just outside town: the Huacachina Oasis, a lagoon ringed by enormous sand dunes where you can go sandboarding and take dune buggy rides. Pisco is about an hour away by bus, and Lima is a four-hour ride north.